CHAPTER SIX
Night had descended over the city of Detroit. The slightly-overweight man stood guard at the quiet military base, though he was not very good at it. In fact, he was reclining in a chair, sleeping, with a magazine and a half-eaten doughnut resting on his chest.
Pathetic, was the only word Lugnut could think of that could properly describe the flesh creature and all of its kind.
Disguised in the form of a jet bomber, hidden amongst others of its type, Lugnut spoke to the purple fighter jet that was his companion. "Anything yet, Blitzwing?"
"Negative," was the icy reply. The Decepticon Triple Changer stood out jarringly while amid the other jets; some of the humans stationed here were more than a little suspicious of him-- too much for Lugnut's liking. But since converting to his more natural-looking tank mode would only unleash the destructive maniac that Blitzwing truly was, it was probably for the best that he stayed in jet mode.
"I thought you said you detected an energon reading," Lugnut growled.
"I did," Blitzwing said irritably. "And now I can't find it anymore. It's like it disappeared."
"Energon signatures don't just disappear. Do you know where it's coming from?"
"Like I said to you before, it's something at this military base--"
"But WHERE?" Lugnut roared.
"Who goes there?!"
The two Decepticons fell silent, for the human guard had awoken. It had slipped Lugnut's mind to communicate with Blitzwing via internal radio.
"Slag," Blitzwing muttered. "What do we do?"
"Remember when Starscream told us that subtlety was key?" Lugnut asked.
"Yes?"
"Time to disregard that."
A strange cackled emitted from the jet. "I like the way you think."
As one, the two fliers began to change shape. With each part that moved into place, the guard's eyes grew wider and wider in terror. Once the two Decepticons had completed their transformation, the human turned and fled.
Lugnut morphed his arm into its "explosive punch" position and thrust it into the ground. In mere second, the military base was up in flames.
* * *
"So...." Standing idly against the railing of the second floor, Hunter watched as the two Autobot brothers, Sideswipe and Sunstreaker- played a game that reminded him of chess. "How did you guys end up here?"
"Long story," Sideswipe said. "Like, seriously, it took Prime over an hour to explain it all to Agent Fowler. In short, we were being chased by the Decepticons, then we got hit by an asteroid, crashed here, and fell asleep for a hundred years or so."
"So how did you wake up and become buddies with these 'Men in Black'-type guys?"
"Our ship crashed into a volcano and when it erupted, it woke us up," Sideswipe explained. "Shortly before then, Sector Seven discovered us and, though it took some time, we became 'buddies'... kinda."
Sunstreaker scoffed. "I think Ratchet should diagnose you with Exposition Disease."
Sideswipe glared at him. "You just made that up. Look, how else am I supposed to explain it?"
"By keeping your mouth shut. These humans don't have to know everything. In fact, they shouldn't even be here in our base."
Hunter cleared his throat, hoping to diffuse the tension. "So, uh, what do you guys do here? Just hang out?"
"Pretty much," Sideswipe said. "Every once in a while, we go scouting, mainly to learn more about this planet. Of course, not all of us go scouting...."
He eyed his brother, who simply rolled his optics in response.
Before Hunter could ask another one of his 110 questions, an alarm blared and both Autobot brothers shot to their feet.
"Scrap, no one told me this place had an alarm!" Sideswipe exclaimed.
Prowl came rushing into the room, along with Jazz and Ironhide. "There's been a Decepticon sighting," the police car Autobot said dourly. "In Detroit, Illinois."
"What?" Sunstreaker said. "That's nearly across the country! By the time we'd get there, the 'Cons will have leveled the place!"
"You mean none of you guys can fly?" Hunter asked. "Can't you like... scan a jet or something to turn into?"
Prowl shook his head. "We can only scan forms similar to the ones we were built with on Cybertron. Unfortunately, very few of us on the Ark were jets, and those few are currently still in stasis."
"What are we supposed to do, then?" Ironhide asked.
Prowl sighed. "We'll have to ask Sector Seven to send for transport. Hopefully it will be able to get here in time."
To Jazz, he said, "Take Ironhide and Sideswipe with you. They're the toughest Autobots currently available."
Sunstreaker made a revving sound, akin to a human clearing their throat.
Prowl glanced at him. "And bring Sunstreaker too so he doesn't drive the rest of us nuts."
* * *
A solitary blue motorcycle drove down an old country road, leaving a trail of dust in its path. It was around this area, just on the highway up ahead, that the three Decepticons which Bumblebee encountered had been.
Of course, Arcee knew that they were long gone by now. But she was still getting a strong energon reading on her scanner.
Taking a detour off the road, she headed in the direction of the signal, which grew stronger the further she went. By the time she finally reached its source, night had fallen and she had arrived at an industrial area-- seemingly an abandoned one, for no humans could be spotted.
As such, Arcee transformed to her robot form and began to sneak around. She could hear voices not far from here; gruff, robotic voices.
Decepticons.
Pressing herself against a building, she looked around the corner. Immediately, her spark jumped in surprise. There were indeed Decepticons-- at least five of them-- and they were extracting something out of a large crater.
It was the headless body of Megatron.
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